Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2018 Pinot Noir Cuvée Natalie Silver Belt Vineyard has a gorgeous, classically Kistler nose: crushed cranberries, blackberries and rhubarb with nuances of violets, dried tobacco, underbrush and blood orange peel—it’s like staring into a well of archetypal Pinot Noir with all its ripe berry fruit and bitters-tinged accents. The palate is medium-bodied and offers up all the flavor layers in the Pinot Noir toolbox, but with expert restraint, the fruit making way for the amaro accents. It has a silky texture and very fine grain, with seamless freshness and a very long, very nuanced finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
There are two Pinot Noirs from this great estate, and while they ferment at higher temperatures and quickly with their Chardonnay, they take the opposite approach with their reds. These were both destemmed and brought up in 40% new French oak. The 2018 Pinot Noir Cuvee Natalie is the more delicate, cool-climate styled release and offers a beautiful perfume of redcurrants, black raspberries, rose petals, gunpowder, and forest notes. Medium-bodied, elegant, and beautifully balanced, it will evolve for 10-15 years or more.
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Wine Spectator
This richly spiced red shows vibrant dried cherry and berry flavors that are filled with plenty of forest floor notes. The minerally finish is focused, with extended sanguine and savory accents.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.